The lateral surface of an object is the area of all the sides of the object, excluding the area of its base and top.
For a cube the lateral surface area would be the area of four sides. Consider the edge of the cube as a . The area of one square face Aface = a ⋅ a = a2. Thus the lateral surface of a cube will be the area of four faces: a ⋅ a ⋅ 4 = 4a2.